FIGHTING FRAUD AND REDUCING AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE
RATES ACT, 2014 Wednesday 30 April 2014
Author Archives: Admin2
Committee Transcripts: Standing Committee on General Government – 2014-Apr-30 – Bill 171, Fighting Fraud and Reducing Automobile Insurance Rates Act, 2014
We need insurance reform – The sorry state of Ontario’s auto insurance should be a major election issue
There’s no shortage of issues for Ontario’s June 12 election: Out of control hydro prices, the sad state of the economy, pension reform, transit funding and, of course, all the Liberal scandals.
Once again, the issue of auto insurance reform is likely to be left at the curb with no party championing those injured in auto accidents.
It’s a pity as the state of Ontario’s auto insurance cries out for reforms to protect accident victims. http://www.torontosun.com/2014/05/09/we-need-insurance-reform
Fraud, overbilling, theft: Ontario’s rogue lawyers
According to law society documents, Vinti Sansanwal, at the time national claims director with HB Group insurance in Mississauga, would approve personal injury files for hundreds of thousands of dollars more than what had been negotiated with claimants.
Pachai, acting as the lawyer for the insurance company, altered documents to reflect the inflated bogus amounts, while sending off the true lower amounts to claimants. In one case, a claim was settled for only $5,000 but Pachai doctored the documents sent to the company to show it was $225,000.
The law society says Pachai and Sansanwal then split the excess settlement funds on a 50-50 basis. They did this 11 times between 2005 and 2007. The law society found Pachai kept close to half of the $1.5 million the scam raked in.
FAIR cries foul over Bill 171 hearings
DesRoches continues that “it might be easier to think of those tens of thousands of people lined up at FSCO to have hearings as fakers and malingerers but the numbers don’t lie, they are a reflection of a broken system and not a reflection of rampant fraud in the system.
http://www.insurancebusiness.ca/news/fair-cries-foul-over-bill-171-hearings-177622.aspx
Horwath Misleads Voters: Orazietti
Provincial NDP Blocked Appointment to Financial Accountability Office, Stalled Legislation to Lower Auto Insurance Premiums
http://www.saultonline.com/2014/05/horwath-misleads-voters-orazietti/
IBAO’s telematics subsidiary ‘reached out’ to Alberta auto insurance regulator
Officials with the Insurance Brokers Association of Ontario (IBAO)’s telematics subsidiary have discussed usage-based auto insurance with the Alberta regulator and are urging Alberta’s brokers to tell carriers that brokers need to have access to policyholders’ telematics data.
Partnership is the Best Weapon in the Battle Against Auto Insurance Fraud
Canadian auto insurers have a major problem with insurance fraud. The problem is also worsening substantially every year, and in Ontario alone it has reached a price tag of $1.6 billion a year (Robertson & Perkins, 2011)
Personal privacy eroded as public, private sectors share info
Personal information is flowing between the public and private sectors in unprecedented ways, posing fresh risks to privacy, says a new book on surveillance in Canada.
Data gathered for one purpose may easily be used for another when public and private organizations share data, flying in the face of fair information practices, says “Transparent Lives: Surveillance in Canada.”
Is the government checking you out on Facebook?
“the public availability of personal information on the Internet does not render personal information non-personal. It is our view that departments should not access personal information on social media sites unless they can demonstrate a direct correlation to legitimate government business.”
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/is-the-government-checking-you-out-on-facebook-1.1812110
Proposed WSIB changes will hurt workers, advocates say
Workers’ advocates charge that hundreds of injured workers have, like Harris, been denied benefits for pre-existing medical conditions since 2010, when the former Dalton McGuinty government appointed David Marshall as WSIB president.
They blame Marshall’s marching orders “to reduce and ultimately retire” the board’s $12 billion unfunded liability, the difference between current funding levels and long-term payouts to injured workers. They say this financial imperative is behind a proposed new WSIB policy on pre-existing conditions that would “fundamentally change” the system and throw thousands of injured workers into poverty.